House of Reps Begins Probe of Banks over Excessive Charges

The House of Representatives on Wednesday mandated its Committee on Banking and Currency to investigate the excessive charges on bank transactions by Deposit Money Banks in Nigeria and report back within four weeks for further legislative action.

This followed the adoption of a motion by Hon Sergius Ose Ogun.
Ogun, in his motion, said most of the Deposit Money Banks in Nigeria impose excessive and non-statutory charges on varying bank transactions carried out by customers.

He said in a bid to, among other things, stop the indiscriminate imposition of charges by Deposit Money Banks, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had in January 2020, issued a guide to charges by banks, other financial institutions and non-bank financial institutions, stating the approved bank charges to be imposed by Deposit Money Banks.

Ogun however expressed concerns that despite the guide issued by the CBN, some banks still deduct “outrageous” amounts of money from their customers in the guise of bank charges with different descriptions.
He said in most cases, the deductions were already covered by the CBN-approved monthly Account Maintenance Fee (AMF), thus amounting to double deduction.

Contributing, Rep Sada Soli described the motion as apt, saying Nigerians are indiscriminately charged by banks for deposits, withdrawals, card maintenance, account maintenance and other hidden charges.

Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila, while adopting the motion, described it as “very important.”